tornado watch

 

Most of the time, the clouds here look like this. Bigger than life, unusually tall, but beautiful. I have never been one to be afraid of bad weather or natural disasters , though my husband definitely has that on his list of things to be worried about. Recently though, I  guess I have been a little more concerned than usual.

It started a week or so ago, when some neighbors were overly concerned about the possibility of tornadoes. If there is emergency weather, we're all supposed to go to the school building for shelter, and they were certain there was going to be a tornado. They wanted Joseph to go open the school to let them in, but he wouldn't for various reasons...mostly so he didn't get fired.

We had already looked on the NOAA weather site, and there was no kind of warning for our area, though he assured them if the weather looked worse, he'd be sure to go open the doors for everyone (even though it's not supposed to be his job!) They weren't happy with him.

After this incident occurred, I found myself watching the weather a little more closely than usual. I also was beset by some strange dreams about tornadoes.

 

In the most vivid dream, I found our house surrounded by stormy clouds. First, I looked to the west, where I saw four or five distant twisters touching the ground, at such a distance that they appeared about the width of my fingers.

West view from our kitchen

Then I ran to our north-facing kitchen windows, where I saw two giant funnel clouds that were much closer and bearing down on our community. These two monsters were close enough that they seemed about the width of a door from where I was, so they were at least big enough to swallow several houses at once, up close.

Northern view from our kitchen

At this point in the dream, I grabbed all my kids and we headed out the door to go to the school! It was supposedly a school day and Joseph was already there- as was the rest of the community- and I remember feeling angry that Joseph hadn't come home to get us, or called us to tell us to come over.

As we walked out the door, I looked to the East, the direction our front door opens upon. There I saw the most horrendous tornado of all. This one was so close I would have to stretch my arms out to encompass its width from my viewpoint; it was several miles wide, and much bigger than our little collection of houses and school buildings. 

Eastern view from our porch

The kids and I started running to the school, which is just to the south-east of our home. In real life, I don't know if we could really outrun such a monstrous tornado that was so close to our position!

South Eastern view, toward the school building

In the end, we made it inside the school in time, just as the mother tornado encompassed the area. We shut the doors and all ducked for cover on the ground, and darkness surrounded us. When we stood up afterwards, the ground was littered with dark ash...I think I was confusing tornadoes with volcanic eruptions, but in a dream it's almost the same thing, right?

Anyway, these pictures are from the morning after I had that dream. These storm clouds rolled in in just a matter of minutes, visibly roiling and churning as they spread across the sky! After my 'vision' of the night before, you bet I was a little concerned..especially when we saw that same family headed over to the school again. I turned on the weather report, and again there were no warnings for our area at all, not even for a severe thunderstorm...but I packed our bag with a few extra diapers and got out everyone's shoes and socks, just in case.

looking up to the North

I thought these views to the north-east were the most concerning. This first one is pretty dramatic, but the last one, below, is the scariest to me. See the clouds on the right-hand side of the photo? Those clouds were literally curling down to the earth as they advanced, almost right over our head!

looking up above our house to the North

The clouds covered us, rained violently but briefly, and had moved on in a matter of twenty minutes or so. While I wouldn't mind seeing a twister sometime while we're here, I just hope its from somewhere safe...when our house isn't directly in it's path! Hmm, maybe next year we can move to Kansas? Or not.